The arrest of Peter Sunde for his involvement with The Pirate Bay has put the future of his latest project, a spy-proof text messaging app, in doubt.

The arrest of Peter Sunde for his involvement with The Pirate Bay has put the future of his latest project, a spy-proof text messaging app, in doubt.

Sunde was arrested by police in the southern part of Sweden on Saturday, officials there confirmed Monday morning. Three and half years have passed since he was sentenced to eight months in prison for being an accessory to crimes against copyright law as a result of his involvement in The Pirate Bay.

Sunde has denied any ongoing involvement in The Pirate Bay, but his arrest could affect his latest project, a messaging app.

Hemlis, which is slang for secret in Swedish, was announced in July last year, and apps for Android and iOS are still under development. They promise end-to-end encryption using keys generated on the end user devices.

"By now the word is spreading of Peter's arrest and people are wondering if this means that Hemlis will be delayed. The honest answer is that we don't know. We will update the blog on Monday with more information," the project wrote on its Facebook page over the weekend.

On Monday, Sunde's colleagues had taken stock of the situation and offered a slightly more upbeat take on what they feel is a bad situation.

"Peter's imprisonment will not directly affect the release of Hemlis, but it does however affect us as individuals and as a team. Everything is currently in turmoil but we are doing our best to get things back on track and Hemlis on to your devices," they wrote in a blog post.

The apps are currently in a closed beta, and there are a few things left to iron out before they can be released, according to the post.

The idea to create Hemlis came following the revelations in the media about the extent of the surveillance programs of the U.S. National Security Agency and other government agencies, Sunde said last year.

In addition to Sunde, the Hemlis team includes Linus Olsson -- who also co-founded microdonations service Flattr with Sunde -- and Leif HAPgberg, Flattr's CTO.

The continued revelations from former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden about National Security Agency snooping has not only prompted the development of Hemlis, but of a number of other new security products and services too. One example is the Blackphone, which is expected to start shipping this month and purports to also offer secure communications.